A Salaam Malaeka
Yesterday I attended this introduction to the basic concepts and principles of Islam. I went because it is harrowing the standard persons elementary knowledge on the world's second largest religion (myself included). Albeit i do think i posess more than just the primative comprehension of Islam, because for while i did independently seek out information on other religions from my own equitable viewpoint. My intentions were to perhaps dispell some myths perpetuated by the media, and to take in an Objective analysis of the religion.
The event had been promoted throughout the week, so i was quite bewildered and bereaved by the turnout (i was one of i would say 35).The speaker was of substantial merit and it permiated through his speech. I was quite captured with his way to make Islam so accesible and his sheer wisdom on the subject. He explained that in arabic Islam means Peace and gave us a cumulative history of the Qur'an. He also explained the five pillars of Islam. What i am most pleased with is his candor on how to differentiate Christianity and Islam. Most of you are thinking that the idiosyncrasies are abundant and apparent but i beg to differ. Its not that they aren't easily distinguishable, but when someone is conveying their religion, they tend to use a quasi rubric approach. As in we all do this and this, checking off the boxes as they go, thinking that deviation from certain universal principles is a poor way to introduce someone to your ideology. He told us flat out the main discontinuities between the relgions. Example, the Qur'an is said to directly have derived from god, unlike the bible where there is agents and intermdiaries. Also a wide misconception by stereotypical American's is THEY DON'T HATE JESUS. I loathe when people inorantly claim this, and apparently he does too, for whenever refering to Jesus he immdiately followed with "peace be upon him." The truth is they believe in prophets (IE Moses, Abraham, etc) but they dont worship them as in Christianity (they believe they do not need an intercessor between God and themselves). He also explained the Jihad in the orignal contexts.
He then proceeded to open up the question portion of the event. I damn near left because of my fear of the barbarous comments just waiting crash and burn princess Dianna style into the refreshing ambiance of this event. Most of the questions stemmed fomr the headlines. He answered questions about the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammed, the Afghani Convert nearly sentenced to death for his beliefs, the Islamic view on women's equity, etc. It was very refreshing to hear his response. You expected to here the banal "it is not what Islam teaches," and how this is mearly a cultural discrepancy. He didnt justify these things but he told us how he does not advocate any of these actions, but it is far from him to judge. He said "i cannot judge another man for his actions, even if it happens in front of me, i can recount what happened but i cannot tell you why it occured." All in all it was a very enlightening event, i am quite impressed that none of my peers embarassed our university with any questions like, "why do you people hate America."
Mr_BaysideHigh
Justin "uh i think u mean AMERICAN BEEFCAKE" Myers
The event had been promoted throughout the week, so i was quite bewildered and bereaved by the turnout (i was one of i would say 35).The speaker was of substantial merit and it permiated through his speech. I was quite captured with his way to make Islam so accesible and his sheer wisdom on the subject. He explained that in arabic Islam means Peace and gave us a cumulative history of the Qur'an. He also explained the five pillars of Islam. What i am most pleased with is his candor on how to differentiate Christianity and Islam. Most of you are thinking that the idiosyncrasies are abundant and apparent but i beg to differ. Its not that they aren't easily distinguishable, but when someone is conveying their religion, they tend to use a quasi rubric approach. As in we all do this and this, checking off the boxes as they go, thinking that deviation from certain universal principles is a poor way to introduce someone to your ideology. He told us flat out the main discontinuities between the relgions. Example, the Qur'an is said to directly have derived from god, unlike the bible where there is agents and intermdiaries. Also a wide misconception by stereotypical American's is THEY DON'T HATE JESUS. I loathe when people inorantly claim this, and apparently he does too, for whenever refering to Jesus he immdiately followed with "peace be upon him." The truth is they believe in prophets (IE Moses, Abraham, etc) but they dont worship them as in Christianity (they believe they do not need an intercessor between God and themselves). He also explained the Jihad in the orignal contexts.
He then proceeded to open up the question portion of the event. I damn near left because of my fear of the barbarous comments just waiting crash and burn princess Dianna style into the refreshing ambiance of this event. Most of the questions stemmed fomr the headlines. He answered questions about the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammed, the Afghani Convert nearly sentenced to death for his beliefs, the Islamic view on women's equity, etc. It was very refreshing to hear his response. You expected to here the banal "it is not what Islam teaches," and how this is mearly a cultural discrepancy. He didnt justify these things but he told us how he does not advocate any of these actions, but it is far from him to judge. He said "i cannot judge another man for his actions, even if it happens in front of me, i can recount what happened but i cannot tell you why it occured." All in all it was a very enlightening event, i am quite impressed that none of my peers embarassed our university with any questions like, "why do you people hate America."
Mr_BaysideHigh
Justin "uh i think u mean AMERICAN BEEFCAKE" Myers